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{
    "id": 454239,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/454239/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gichigi ",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1909,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Kamunye Gichigi",
        "slug": "samuel-kamunye-gichigi"
    },
    "content": "She has wide experience as a public servant. Her work in supporting the girl- child is a plus for her. When I pinned her down by asking her whether she is just looking at the interests of the female gender in this Commission, she indicated that she had taken up the issue of the boy-child, who is increasingly becoming marginalized, especially in some areas in this country. I have no hesitation in recommending to the Members of this House to approve the appointment of Dr. Nyokabi. It is very important that we understand the legal position that informed the Committee in deciding not to approve the second nominee, Dr. Alawy. When the new Constitution was enacted, it found many people who had lost Kenyan citizenship, because of having acquired citizenship of other countries. Dr. Alawy, in 2005, became a US citizen. Automatically, under the legal regime that was in force then, he lost his Kenyan citizenship. The new Constitution provided for dual citizenship; it also said that those who had lost their Kenya citizenship could regain Kenyan citizenship. It was important for them to follow certain procedures. This was to go to the Cabinet Secretary in charge of citizenship; you were declare that you are a citizen of another country, and also that you were born in Kenya or you were a citizen of Kenya before the new Constitution was enacted, but you had lost your citizenship. Once you make that declaration and then you apply for resumption of your Kenyan citizenship, the Cabinet Secretary registers you and then issues you with a certificate of citizenship. When we asked Dr. Alawy whether he followed this procedure, he said that he remembers filling in some forms in December, 2012. Then we told him that we would give him time to go and bring those documents to show that he had resumed Kenyan citizenship. Subsequently, he brought some papers showing that he had gone and applied for resumption of his Kenyan citizenship after his vetting. That is when he went and tried to fill in the forms but, because he was in a hurry, instead of applying to resume Kenyan citizenship, he made an application that was supposed to be made by Kenyans who lost their citizenship after the promulgation of the new Constitution. If you now become a citizen of another country, you do not lose your citizenship; you get dual citizenship; for instance you become a citizen of both the USA and Kenya. But you are supposed to make a declaration within three months that you have also acquired the citizenship of another country. He filled a form, but did not apply for dual citizenship. He was an American citizen and he had to go through the steps of becoming a Kenya citizen. He has not done that even as we speak. By the time we prepared this report, no certificate from the Cabinet Secretary showing that he had become a Kenyan again had been provided to us. So, in as much as we had no personal issues with him, he is technically unqualified under Article 78 of the Constitution that says that no person who is not a Kenya citizen should be given a public position or office in this country, unless it is for consultancy purposes. I, therefore, urge this House to support this Report. I beg to support."
}